The mood in here

WWW + RTRS = Strange Bedfellows

Monsanto and Syngenta have been accepted as full members in the Round Table on Responsible Soy, which now makes this organization an oxymoron. Does WWF intend to sever its connection to RTRS immediately--as it indeed should? --RFWilson

The statement made by WWF back in december about RTRS and support for GMO's rings completely false now, with the accession of these two biotech giants to RTRS. WWF needs to distance itself completely from this process while these players remain at the table. -Andrew

Many thanks for submitting your valuable concerns and opinions. We have passed them on to our senior colleagues who are more closely associated with this issue and we hope to get back to you very soon with a response. Hopefully today or tomorrow.

Gentlemen - I just wanted to get back to you to say that our colleagues are still discussing this issue - but I hope to have something for you later today (GMT) or Monday in terms of a response. Apologies for this delay.

WWF's statement is naive tosh. WWF needs to stand solidly alongside the rest of the environmental movement to stop the devastation being caused by GM soy. It needs to directly support the small farmers, local communities and indigenous people fighting to stop the GM soy onslaught, and to support consumer resistance to GM soy in animal feed and the use of more local and sustainable sources of animal feed. Giving legitimacy to multinational biotech and commodity trading companies by taking their money and jumping into bed with them will do none of these things.

Corporations such as Shell, ExxonMobile and Monsanto are I believe all major funders of WWF. By my reckoning that means that WWF is currently allying "with the very forces that are doing most to destroy the world's remaining ecosystems and hasten global meltdown" This is madness! You should be ostracising these corporate monsters, not taking their money. Andrew

Many thanks for your passionate comments Andrew. Debate is good. However, although I have only worked for WWF for 10 years, to my knowledge the companies you mention have never been major funders of WWF.

Whoever is sponsoring WWF shouldn't influence opinions. GM Roundup Ready soy and the chemicals used are poisoning people at a massive scale in Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia, killing the fish in nearby rivers, destroying biodiversity. GM soy is a dangerous threat to the animals and people that consume it. GM soy can never ever be sustainable and the WWF knows that. For that reason the WWF should vote a clear NO on the RTRS criteria. Too bad for the organiser, but it is worse to throw away your own standards and credibility all over the world.

@ TD above
GM soya is indeed an envoronmental & humanitarian disaster, and as you say "can never ever be sustainable and the WWF knows that" Please WWF International - WAKEN UP to the reality of what big biotech is doing to destroy global food security and ecosystem integrity. You should be putting all your energies into promoting the message in the IAASTD report that the future of agriculture and reducing world hunger lies with agro-ecological methods - not GM. Your statement about why Monsanto & Syngenta should have a place at the RTRS, and why you want to continue to sit alongside them is just so much garbage. I am utterly dismayed at the complete betrayal of the global environment signified by your stance on this issue.